Jennifer Holmes, CEO of London Internet Exchange, explores the resilience and readiness of Europe’s digital infrastructure.
The story of Europe’s digital infrastructure is increasingly measured by mobile speed. The speed of 5G deployment, coverage map peaks and lags, and the potential and promise of 6G deployment are the strongest indicators of innovation, but this mobile story only scratches the surface.
Behind every successful call, every stream, and every AI-driven workflow lies a less visible but far more important layer of infrastructure: a mesh of fibers, network interconnects, and backbone infrastructure that carries digital traffic across cities, borders, and continents.
Europe’s future connectivity will depend not just on faster airwaves, but on how well this underlying infrastructure performs and can scale. Most importantly, it can be done safely, resiliently and comprehensively. As demand from artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, media streaming, smart city systems, and critical public infrastructure continues to accelerate, the resiliency of these networks has become a strategic imperative.
Beyond the mobile mast
As Europe prepares for the rollout of 5G and the rollout of enhanced 5G as well as new 6G technology, public attention is focused on coverage maps and headline speeds. Achieving the resilient, high-capacity network connectivity required for today’s digital economy requires more than just relying on faster wireless access.
The foundation of Europe’s digital future lies in the underlying internet infrastructure that reliably transports traffic between cities, regions and across the high seas. These networks are responsible for everything from cloud-based AI to edge computing, streaming services, virtual reality, and the remote services envisioned by 6G.
Standardization work for the 6G transition began last year, with the aim of deploying 6G near 2030, but this remains underemphasized in connectivity policy discussions. For high-performance digital services to become the norm, Europe must ensure that the networks beneath the pillars are robust, scalable, and capable of handling unprecedented traffic growth.
This means prioritizing interconnection infrastructure that keeps data flows as local as possible, improving latency and reducing dependence on distant transportation routes. This is exactly what will ensure users get real value from next-generation access technologies.
resiliency at scale
The biggest indicators of the success of Europe’s digital infrastructure will come from high-demand digital moments that affect millions of people around the world, not just everyday traffic patterns. The network is expected to absorb peaks in demand without performance degradation or systemic risk, especially during moments of mass participation in live events or during public emergencies.
Network resilience has become a strategic necessity and is now considered essential to national security, economic continuity, and public welfare. A recent report highlights that secure connectivity now underpins not only economic activity but also defense preparedness and critical national services, from health and energy systems to emergency response and logistics, and that inadequate resilience is putting populations and institutions alike at increased risk.
Real-world resiliency at scale depends on the diversity and redundancy of your network architecture. A single overloaded route or underprovisioned link can cascade into broader failures. The stakes only increase as applications demand low latency, high availability, and seamless user experiences.
Policymakers and carriers alike need to think beyond individual upgrades to mobile radios and consider how the entire ecosystem, including subsea and cross-border backbone networks, interconnection hubs, and regional peering arrangements, contributes to a resilient infrastructure that can withstand both predictable growth and sudden surges.
Digital divide across Europe
Despite significant progress, Europe’s digital landscape is far from homogeneous, with connectivity indicators such as broadband speeds, fiber coverage and 5G penetration varying widely across countries and regions, highlighting persistent digital divides that risk entrenching economic and social inequalities.
Even though some Member States have achieved near-universal deployment of advanced networks, rural and remote areas in particular lag behind metropolitan centers in both access and quality of connectivity. These disparities are not just technological; they impact where businesses are located, how public services are delivered, and whether communities can fully participate in the digital economy.
Addressing these gaps is at the heart of the European Union’s Digital Decade goals for 2030, which aim for universal gigabit connectivity and comprehensive 5G coverage across densely populated areas. However, policymakers acknowledge that existing frameworks are fragmented, with domestic markets and regulatory systems creating barriers to cross-border investment and scale-up. The recently proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) is Europe’s most ambitious attempt in years to modernize the rules governing digital infrastructure, making them simpler and more harmonized across member states, thereby facilitating investment in advanced fiber and mobile networks.
Without concerted action, uneven infrastructure investment risks reinforcing existing divisions, leaving parts of Europe behind as other regions scramble to lead in connectivity, innovation and economic growth. This is not just a question of fairness, but one that goes to the heart of whether the digital single market can function efficiently and fairly for both people and businesses.
Pan-European perspective
Europe’s ability to compete in the global digital economy will increasingly depend on the choices made today regarding infrastructure, regulation and cooperation. To remain a trusted global player, policymakers and industry leaders must focus on a few closely related priorities.
Regulatory harmonization and predictability are essential. Fragmented national rules continue to slow the cross-border rollout of critical networks, increasing costs and complexity for operators looking to expand across the EU. The Digital Networks Act aims to address this issue by simplifying the regulatory framework and strengthening the single market for connectivity, allowing companies to operate across the EU through a single registration and reducing administrative burdens.
Investments also need to go beyond access technology to include the underlying systems that keep the network up and running. Common security standards and stronger preparedness plans are already part of broader digital resilience efforts and are essential to ensuring networks can withstand cyberattacks, natural disasters, and geopolitical turmoil without significant service disruption.
Finally, closing the digital divide must remain a core policy objective. Targeted financing tools such as the European Connectivity Facility (CEF) have played an important role in ensuring the security of high-capacity cross-border digital infrastructure. A pan-European approach recognizes connectivity as a strategic infrastructure on a par with energy and transport, essential to keeping Europe competitive, connected and secure over the next decade.
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 25.
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